this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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China’s Domestic x86 CPU, the Zhaoxin KX-7000, Debuts in an AI PC by MAXHUB, Positioning It as a Viable Alternative to Intel/AMD Options (wccftech.com)
submitted 4 days ago by uberstar@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.ml
19 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Archived ver.: https://web.archive.org/web/20250828103802/https://wccftech.com/china-domestic-x86-cpu-the-zhaoxin-kx-7000-debuts-in-an-ai-pc-by-maxhub/

Original source, including in-depth tests and other fancy details of the CPU used in the MAXHUB PC itself (written in Mandarin): https://news.mydrivers.com/1/1070/1070803_all.htm

CPU-Z Single-Core Benchmark and specs from the original source:

That's an 8-core, ~3GHz Base Speed, 32MB L3 cache CPU for the number-crunchers around here.

On the surface, this CPU seems like it's best suited for general desktop and office use, to see it adopted to a PC build product geared for "AI workloads" is interesting. If I'm not mistaken, AI performance is heavily dependent on the GPU rather than on the CPU, so I think that's fine:

In terms of performance, the MAXHUB's AI+ desktop computer is claimed to play 1080P 30fps and 4K 30fps high-bitrate online videos with decent CPU utilization numbers, showing that the KX-7000 CPU acts decently with media workload. Of course, when compared against competitors like Intel or AMD, Zhaoxin is behind, but the key motive here to create an ecosystem that relies entirely on in-house products, and this has apparently happened here.

And that's a good thing, lol.

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[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 18 points 4 days ago

Nice. It'll be good for most of the world to not have to rely on an increasingly unstable US export market for cpus.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

An actual article on it- https://chipsandcheese.com/p/zhaoxins-kx-7000

Spoiler: It's slower than AMD Bulldozer.

Loongson 3A is infinitely faster if you want a China-domestic-market CPU.

[–] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (5 children)

A 9800X3D gets ~820 single thread and ~8600 multithread. So its 41% the speed on single thread and 30% multithreaded. That is more than a decade out of date still a long way to go.

[–] PanArab@lemmy.ml 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The multithreaded performance is comparable to a Ryzen 7 from a few years ago. It ain't bad at all. It all comes to price and power efficiency; and for many governments the lack of possible CIA backdoors is another plus.

[–] morto@piefed.social 6 points 3 days ago

They're just entering a market owned by a few big players. One simply can't come out with a high end product out of nowhere. Maybe it's not even the goal

[–] utjebe@reddthat.com 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Sure, it won't beat high-end CPUs from Intel/AMD, but a decade ago is somewhere between 4-6th gen of Core CPUs.

That's more than enough for an average user's Facebook machine (or WeChat probably in this case)

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

this used to be the market segment that cyrix used to fill and i hope that this doesn't end up the same way.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's VIA, these chips are the modern Cyrix CPUs.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago

history really does keep repeating itself and i hope via learned a lot of lessons from the last time they tried to get into this market.

now, if only they could bring back emachines while they're at it. lol

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Unless you explicitly need x86, it's a bad part.

Loongson3A is much faster and cheaper.

[–] uberstar@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

If we're to compare this entry-level CPU clearly designed by a newcomer company and honed for one or two niches, to the current top-of-the-line, catch-all CPU backed by a brand that has had decades in the processor game, then yeah obviously it's not going to fare well. There's still some merit to this type of CPU (like say, if the price is right) and it could pave the way for better iterations.

We don't make the same comparison for the quality & efficiency of healthcare in the brands' respective countries, now do we? :)

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

newcomer company

It's VIA, they're been around since the dawn of time.

[–] uberstar@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago

Oh, right 🤦‍♂️.. I missed the mark on that one. Point is, the CPU is pretty good for its intended audience and usecases.

[–] rafoix@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Does it matter much, x86/x64 is on its way out. Everyone has to jump on the ARM train or get left behind.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 days ago

I expect everyone will be jumping on RISCV which is an open architecture. China is already developing a high performance architecture based on this https://github.com/OpenXiangShan/XiangShan

I imagine x86 is being developed as an intermittent compatibility measure to support current tech stack in case supplies from the US are cut off.

[–] Robin@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I tend to agree. But in the same way as hard drives have been on the way out for like a decade now, and I'd expect them to still have use cases decades in the future.

[–] rafoix@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 days ago

They will be useful for industry and business that uses software that won’t run on ARM systems. Just like there are places that use DOS to this day.

[–] Aria@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Does it have any sort of on-board NPU to make it AI-oriented?

[–] uberstar@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago

From what I've read so far (not much admittedly, I could be wrong), no, but the N variant (KX-7000N) has it. Seems like a missed opportunity for MAXHUB and their PC..